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The best part of this episode was the Macross Frontier commercial during the break. Ugghh...thank gosh I didn't rate last week's episode all that lowly, I'll be able to give a more crushing rating this time around.

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HOLY CRACKERS! SAIGAR 2008 IS HERE!
Nominations are open 19 November ~ 23 December 2007NOW!!
It's not a tournament without "men"!

Time is short, and I was lucky that I can post early. (No prizes for guessing what this cryptic sentence means)

Anyway, on with the episode.

Spoiler for Ep 23 spoiler:

Obtaining the Reiji Maigo, Hecate transports it inside the clock tower, where Professor Dantalion is working on Silver's armour, places it inside him. As Margery opens up her Fuuzetsu, pillars of stone begin protruding across the city, and shoot out rays of PoE into the blue sphere, which acts as a force field and prevents the Flame Haze's entry.

Yoshida receives a message direct from Johann via Pheles' Hougu, as it seems to activate when something happens to the RM. Yoshida then arrives and tells Shana that the RM has been removed from Yuji. With help from Satou, Margery finds a small hole to penetrate the force field, which the Flame Hazes do.

However, upon entering the force field, they are ambushed by Sydonay, who had anticipated the Flame Hazes entering through there, and Margery is badly injured while covering for the other two, causing her Fuuzetsu outside the sphere to disappear.

Meanwhile, rather than sitting around and waiting to fade away, Yuji decides to make himself useful by trying to enter the distorted clock tower and retrieve the Reiji Maigo before midnight strikes while awaiting Shana's arrival. Even without the RM, he can still fight well against the legions of Domino clones sent to pursue him.

Dantalion comes out and explains what's going on, though he speaks too fast for me to catch it. I'll need to watch it again.

Good use of animation space during the credits. From the likes of it, it'll be the three-way duel seen at the end of series one once again: Shana vs Hecate, Wilhelmina vs Bel-Peol or Dantalion, Margery vs Sydonay, and maybe Yuji vs Silver.

Time is short, and I was lucky that I can post early. (No prizes for guessing what this cryptic sentence means)

Anyway, on with the episode.

Spoiler for Ep 23 spoiler:

Good use of animation space during the credits. From the likes of it, it'll be the three-way duel seen at the end of series one once again: Shana vs Hecate, Wilhelmina vs Bel-Peol or Dantalion, Margery vs Sydonay, and maybe Yuji vs Silver.

Plus we'll see how Yoshida will fare.

Again?! I should have known that the season ender was going to be a complete rematch.

Exciting episode even though it is taking a turn that some people seem to dislike. 24 is up in the air. I doubt anyone who has read the novels can even guess what will happen next because of the large levels of deviation the season has taken.

Spoiler for 23:

Dantalion seems to have illuminated the answers to some questions asked for this season so that’s a nice change. Also, this meeting of Bel Masque vs. the Flame Haze shouldn’t be taken as some “ugh it’s the exact same as last season” because there is still one more episode to go and they definitely do NOT have room for all the nemesis to have their 1 on 1 battles again. They are definitely on the stage, but the true spotlight is on Yuuji right now. Hell, leaving anyone out and not giving them some screen time for the season finale would be a bigger crime than causing similarities to season one.
Yuuji falling into that abyss after trying to fight off the Domino brigade was a neat scene to me, to see him fighting so strongly and not cowering away. Falling down into that abyss also reminds me of the end of the animated Transformers movie, where inside Unicron when HotRod fell into an abyss of his own. One might think he would’ve been lost – but he fell exactly where he needed to go- and I believe this is the case with Yuuji as well.
Making use of the ending credits section for more animation made me happy too, as since the protagonists were being held back during the closing music and Yuuji also losing ground, it was a good epic futile struggle feeling that I got. This really makes the next episode worth looking forward to!
I may also be imagining things, but Hecate had some unneeded stares at Yuuji at the beginning when she could have disposed of him. But she didn’t. Maybe some feelings from her faux vessel are going to reveal themselves next episode, or more likely somewhere in season 3?
Kazumi might have to make a choice next episode too. I wonder what that will be? And of course… will Yuuji finally make a choice between the two other points of the triangle? Can’t wait to see!

Also… Doesn’t Dantalion make you smile when he talks? I love the guy! =D

Great episode imo!

Last edited by Dragon-Emperor; 2008-03-20 at 17:07.
Reason: needed to add more

Yuuji falling into that abyss after trying to fight off the Domino brigade was a neat scene to me, to see him fighting so strongly and not cowering away.

I may also be imagining things, but Hecate had some unneeded stares at Yuuji at the beginning when she could have disposed of him. But she didn’t. Maybe some feelings from her faux vessel are going to reveal themselves next episode, or more likely somewhere in season 3?

He's found his resolve and the primordial mentality to survive kicks in. Did they try using their crossbows against him?

The Balle Masque might have gotten word on how Yuji hindered their plans involving Zarovee, Bifrons, and Sabrac. Perhaps Hecate wanted to see on how Yuji responds when the Reiji Maigo is taken from him.

Even though it is moving quite fast, I like the climax they have set up so far. Heres hope they can follow through with one final batte. And what is a final battle if Pheles doesn't show up. Bye bye Yoshida ;___;

Anyway...I found it strange that Yuji had quite a lot of power of existance left even though RM was removed. Random hole? I know that being able to fire fireballs and lift the sword requires hell a lot of energy

So, I ended up listening to this without video, then watching it. From my unsubbed impressions, it looks like an amazing episode. The music at times is just perfect, and that proffessor guy deserves some kind of a reward for his VA. There was a time near the beginning it just went so well with the music and his expressions and voice and everything really made it climatic.
Unfortunately, I think I saw a Yoshida Kazumi sucession to let Shana have Yuji, and if that is true, this episode will receive an automatic 1 from me.
And Hecate's VA sounded different. It wasn't the quiet rhaspy Noto Momiko I was used to, but a very firm one... Strange.

A great and exciting episode, as expected of the final episodes.
Everyone is getting into the fight, and Yuuji gets chased by junk robots.
As I thought, the last unknown is going to be someone other than what people hoped. Though rather than Silver, it seems to be that statue Denizen thing that Dantalion helped created...

Preview: Thing to protect; The preview says he shouts what he should protect...
While I could think he says one of the girl's names, he probably says something like "the city" or something like that.
Oh... and Kazumi better not use that cross...

__________________

-Blog --> http://tdnshumi.blogspot.com/ (Mainly about video games)
-R.I.P. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gaming wouldn't have been the same without you (9/19/13)

Haven't seen the episode yet, but - uh oh - all that blood... Looks quite nice to me.
As for Dantalion, I just love this guy. His "Eeeeeeexciiiiiting!!!" is the best in my opinion.

Spoiler for Ep 23:

Oh great. Guess i know where my universe of Shana ends in the canon story and begins in my mind.

I think the one thing I really love about the professor in episode 23 was his monologue at the beginning at like 3:50-4:53, and especially whatever he was bursting out at 4:23-4:25 (Using Furukawa-r.0.4.r parody times). That with the music in the background and his emotion was just so climatic!

And his beserk monologue at 20:20-21:40 (Also using Furukawa-r.0.4.r parody times) was just perfect with the music. That was a great song, but going through the two soundtracks, I can't point it out...

I think that this episode will have very different inpacts on people. Some will like it, and some will hate it very much. It is true that they are going to finish the season with an anime original ending again (or they might still surprise us in the end...who knows). Some novel readers will probably find this terrible. I won't be surprised to see some 1's for this episode for that reason. But I'm sure that a lot of people will find this a good episode as well. Just try to see the anime and novels apart from each other.

The episode itself was handled very well. I liked it very much. Although I too want to see more canon-stuff, I wasn't disappointed by the episode. The action was good, the music was good, the characters were portrayed well. And although I don't know what the real plan of the balle masque is, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still kinda scared that they'll ruin some novel material though. I'm just hoping that they'll end it well and that we'll get a third season (although they should wait with this until they have enough novel material to cover)

-Yuji is in a shock. Looking at his chest, and looking there is a gap in his chest from where the Reji Maigo was. You can see a faint flame. He soon realizes that he will soon vanish.
-Hecate sends the Reji Maigo in to the clock tower, and in to the silver armor. Dantalion rants on the completion on the process of resurrecting their leader.
-Shana in fear, bolts to the site where the blue dome is. Then meets up with Margery and Caramel. Afraid that Yuji will die/vanish in panic Shana tries to break the the blue dome. Alastor says its a waste of time. Shana refuses to listen and tries to put a lot of power of existence to the next attack, but Alastor tells her to stop.
-Yoshida comes in telling Shana that Yuji is in great danger (DUH!) The reason why she knows this information is because the pendant that Pheeles gave her Johan told her about what happened.
-Margery calls keisaku and asks him if he could locate a weak point in the blue dome. He looks at the top a notices a weak spot. She finds a weak spot tells Shana and Caramel, and tells them to group up. Once she breaks threw Sydonay is right their waiting for their arrival. Then attacks Margery and knocks her down. Keisaku notices the fuzetsu is down from the haridan, and gets worried.
-Yuji comes to a resolve, and that resolve is to get Reji Maigo back and protect everyone. When he is running towards Reji Maigo, Cantate Domino 28 says that there is a intruder "the mystes" is heading towards Reji Maigo. Dantalion says "OHHHH YOU MUSSSSSSSST STTOOOPPPPP THEEEEE INTRUUUDEERRRRRRRRRR!!!!" so a bunch of Cantate Domino 28 (miniature) come at Yuji. He notices them throws a couple of fire balls kills some of them. The Cantate Domino 28 continuously comes at Yuji. When he crosses a bridge he destroys the bridge and some of the Cantate Domino 28 that was following him fell. The Cantate Domino 28 still manage to get across the bridge, and then Yuji gets his sword out and starts attacking the Cantate Domino 28. Since he is in a closed space his sword gets caught into a steel rod. When this happens, Dantalion says "EVERYTHING HASSS STARTTEEDD!!!!!1!1!! LEEETTTSSS BEEGGINNNN!!!!!" and the whole place starts to shake. Causing Yuji to fall.
-Shana comes to a resolve saying Yuji and Her will fight together.

Most likely there will be a season three.
My reasons are.

Spoiler:

-There is no word on what Johan told pheles. Back at the festival.
-Another reason is, I cant imagine how the JC staff is going to cram a lot of stuff in to the last episode.
-Mentioned before. If the last square on the Shakugan No Shana website was the Silver Armor they would have already done so.

Bal Masque's goal is to create a Denizen that can only be created in the Crimson World in this world.
The one behind this plan to cross over the the wall of impossibility is "Tantankyukyu (Literally: Searching obsessed demanding research)" Dantalion.
To stop this plan that could be called madness, Shana and co. start to act.
But the guard of "Thousand Changes" Sydonay and "Supreme Throne" Hecate is steadfast.
In what way can an opening be found...?
In the middle of this furious fight, Shana and Wilhelmina realized, at the same time, that there was single bit of hope.
And so, Shana and co. begin their counterattack.
Yuuji sensed the fight from within the clocktower.
And, while knowing that the limit is nearing for himself, who had the Midnight Lost Child drawn from him, he continues to run.
For the thing he has to protect, "I will fight my own battle." He says.

Well, there goes the chance for novel events, I think.
Dantalion: EXCEEELEENNNT!

__________________

-Blog --> http://tdnshumi.blogspot.com/ (Mainly about video games)
-R.I.P. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gaming wouldn't have been the same without you (9/19/13)